My Body My Self

Personal Training: How Jorge Reduced His Mid-Section and Changed His Life

Julie — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:47:04 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

: Front shot: BEFORE

Jorge hired me to train him the month of December (2011). His goals were the following:

Improve his jumps in volleyball, jumping higher and maintaining himself in the air longer.

Change his abdomen: lower body fat and develop muscle definition, as well as strengthen to improve jumps.

Increase flexibility to serve him in improving his volleyball game.

Front shot: AFTER, 26 days later

Of the three, I will be addressing here the second goal, his mid-section.

MEASUREMENTS… I measured Jorge once a week, targeting specific areas. Measurements were tracked in centimeters with a tape measure (girth), as well as in millimeters with a body fat pincher. In this post I will note his initial measurements in key areas, as well as his measurements at the end of the 4-week program. Then I will provide his subjective report of the changes he experienced in his life.

Jorge began his personal training program on November 28. We trained in a small space using a thin rug and folded blanket (primarily for abs and back), as well as just outside the door in the garage (primarily rope jumping) and using up to five stairsteps (plyometrics). Once Jorge was more conditioned and advanced, we added the steep incline in the road outdoors to bring greater challenge to the power and breadth of his jumps. Jorge’s four-week personal training program — including foods and nutrition consulting — consisted of three sessions a week, each session being scheduled for 40 minutes, but in reality usually lasting a bit longer.

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The following are Jorge’s measurement results:

Girth (circumference) measurements with tape measure (all measured in centimeters):

WAIST Before: 77.5 After: 76.0 *Jorge dropped 1.5 cm’s in his waist*.
BELLY BUTTON Before: 84.0 After: 81.5 *Jorge dropped 2.5 cm’s at the level of his belly button.

(*His waist being the smallest part of his torso.)

Body fat pinches, measured in millimeters:

SHOULDER BLADE Before: 24.0 After: 19.0 *Jorge dropped 5 mm’s at the base of his right shoulder blade.
HIP Before: 27.0 After: 17.0 *Jorge dropped 10 mm’s above his hip bone.**
THIGH Before: 19.0 After: 15.0 *Jorge dropped 4 mm’s at the mid-thigh level.
LOW BACK Before: 60.0 After: 52.0 * Jorge dropped 8 mm’s in his lower back area.***

(**This particular site being a powerful indicator of Jorge’s — and anyone’s — overall body fat loss.)

(***The pinch in his low back was made diagonally in the thickest area of the rear part of his right “love handle”.)

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A PORTION OF JORGE’S SUBJECTIVE OBSERVATIONS, Jan. 25, 2012

Jorge trained with me for one month. A month after he completed his program, we re-measured him and he provided me with details on his status.

FOOD HABITS: Jorge no longer consumes Cokes and instead drinks water as a lifestyle. He eats a variety of fruits. He ate pork only once this past month. He eats salads three times a week. He chooses brown bread for breakfast and whole grain empanadas in the afternoon.

FITNESS HABITS: Jorge does cobras (a sort of pushup that aids in back flexibility) three times a week, along with abdominals. He runs Monday through Friday evenings, followed by steps, jumps, and jump rope. On Tuesdays and Thursdays he trains in volleyball with his team.

HOW HE FEELS: Jorge says he feels much better, his jumps are higher and he has more confidence. He states that his mentality is more positive and that he has more energy every day. “Ya no tengo flojera.” (I’m not experiencing laziness anymore.) “Tengo ganas. Quiero seguir, seguir.” (I am motivated and have drive. I want to keep going and going.”

Back shot: AFTER, 26 days later

Back shot: BEFORE

Right side: AFTER, 26 days later

Right side: BEFORE

Personal Training (tlbflowllc.com)

What’s More Important than Goals?

Julie — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:03:57 +0000

Before we embark on this theme, I feel compelled to announce that my hunger for writing is returning. This is probably due to a spiritual growth spurt that I am experiencing and my need to not only process ideas in writing, but to also share them with the hopes that they are also stimulating others to go within, think, process and grow. So here we go…

This post is dedicated on this special Valentine’s Day to my greatest teacher of love,

Carlao Palacios, my Brazilian-Bolivian angel.

Carlao in La Paz's Botanical Park (1)

______________________________

What’s more important than goals? — Love is more important that goals.

I agree that goals and goal setting are fabulous. Goal setting is an incredible tool, but I think that we can easily miss the point. We can get so tied up in our goals that we lose sight of their true purpose. Isn’t the purpose of goals, of goal setting and of goal achievement LOVE? Isn’t love what makes the world go ’round? Isn’t LOVE what we all ultimately crave and need at a soul level?

WE DO IT ALL FOR LOVE

How about if we just decide to put LOVE first, to be more generous with our energy towards others, regardless of how they do or don’t treat us, regardless of what they did to us or we did to them in the past.

What if love were our first priority truly? Not in theory, but in action. What would it look like? What would it feel like? What if we just decided to have a change of heart and focus on giving of ourselves instead of focusing on what we’re lacking and what we want others to give us? What if we decide to just keep putting ourselves out there?

So we fall down. So what. That’s life. But I can tell you that living a life of fear and trepidation is not living. It is existing, even perhaps to the extent of sucking the life out of others.

To truly experience love as a way of life, perhaps we have to do the last thing we would ever think of doing: Letting go of our tight hold on our agendas and need to control, and instead embracing the simplicity and opportunities for love in our now.

I had an out-of-body experience one night about nineteen years ago. During this experience I had access to all information. For one question there were infinite answers. What impressed me most in this experience was that there was another being there talking to me. I knew him as Jesus, although at that time I did not have a relationship with Jesus. He said, “There is no need for worry or anxiety. Worry and anxiety are useless. All there is is love.” I remember thinking, “I have to remember to tell Julie this. It’s so important.” Fortunately, I remembered the experience clearly and it is still fresh in my mind.

ALL THERE IS IS LOVE

All these years later, I come back to that message and it rings truer than ever. I know now on a soul level that I can own the world and have everything my little heart desires, but if I do not have LOVE and if I do not have FAITH, I have nothing. I know also that I can be cold and broke and have very little in comparison to others, but if I have love and I have faith, then I am rich beyond measure.

Moving through Pain

Julie — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 15:13:30 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

I think that there is a universal tendency, when faced with pain, to move faster through life or to create diversions for ourselves. OF COURSE escape is the tendency. Pain hurts. Who wants to be hanging around in hurt? Not me. Not anybody.

My past reactions to pain were to numb up (food), move faster (get busier and “more productive”), numb up some more (TV), and try to pretend like the pain wasn’t there (chatter). I kinda still use these reactions, but not too much, just because they have become so tedious and boring over the years…. and I got tired of feeling my brain cells shrink and dry up.

How do I react to pain now? I think that first I get Pissed with it. Then comes Indignant, like, “I don’t deserve this.” Following indignant is Self Pity, who sounds something like, “Why me?” Again, because these reactions have become a bit silly for me, – ok, and even embarrassing – they don’t last terribly long.

So what does last when it comes to how I react to my pain? (Ugg.) Anguish. Anguish totally sucks. It hurts like a mo fo, and has a tendency to build in me and get worse before it gets better. I can’t blame my outside world. What I have put into my world rocks. It’s what’s on the inside. Usually it’s buried so far down that I need space and time to get to it. Lately, my body complies by helping me get sick and bed-ridden. Surprisingly, sick and bed-ridden is where I do some of my best life-transition work.

Part of me would really like to blame my pain on anything but me, but my pain comes from within me. It’s not someone else’s fault, not even someone hell-bent on destroying me. The pain that I generate comes from fear, from a need to control my neatly-organized life and from a hold-my-breath-until-I-turn-blue-in-the-face determination to not change. The pain I’m speaking of comes from a desperate desire to avoid going within myself to find out what’s truly awry and what try needs adjusting.

In writing this I find myself on the tail end of bronchitis. I also find myself once again living in an environment with no sunshine and typing with ice-cold, gloved hands (an environment of no indoor heating and year-round cold).

I recently asked the person who I consider my salvation why I continue to, despite much evidence to the contrary, delve into suffering. He responded that it’s because I’m addicted to suffering. An addiction to suffering. I’m wondering if I’m not the only one. We have so many blessings and gifts around and within us, yet we can find it so easy to focus on, or be controlled by, our pain.

Pain has its uses. I consider its alerts essential in getting honest with myself when I’m faced with personal growth. I also find pain essential for happiness. However, pain can be overdone, and I have been found guilty of leaning too heavily on it for far too long.

You know how we can write goals and they can be so elaborate and big? I have been a goal junkie. Just getting stuff down on paper has often brought me relief and hope. This morning I hit up my goal setting from a different angle. On the left of the page I wrote my goal (or what I want) and on the right side, I wrote why. My hands-down biggest “why” was “SATISFACTION”. My second was “PEACE”. What I noted (within the confines of looking at things that were within my true power to change) was that living in warmth and sunshine and with herb plants were (and have been for eons) three of my dearest desires. Simple, right? One would think. So from here on out, I have decided that my Power 3 (refer to prior sentence) are quite attainable and have no business as part of a long-term plan.

What’s the previous paragraph have to do with “Moving through Pain”? It’s the result of what I came up with this morning after processing my most recent pain. The result of my processing pain? — relief, empowerment, determination, a solid sense of direction and a more finely-tuned sense of who I truly am. I would also venture to say that my processing feeds into a greater sense of personal dignity, pride (the good kind) and self respect.

I find pain to be highly useful if treated as a tool to get to peace or joy or harmony or whatever lovely state of being one desires. When pain is treated as the devil and something to fear, fight and avoid is where we can really get in trouble.

So I ask you… are you in pain today? And if so, what does yours have the potential of teaching you?

Know Pain – Know Gain (betweenthedash.wordpress.com)
Lost and Not Quiet Found (alysonhahnfeld.wordpress.com)

The 11 Absolute Best Ways to Get Fat

Julie — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 13:46:33 +0000

INGEST LOTS OF FATS AND SUGARS, preferably together. Top suggestions: donuts, croissants, fried anything (the more soaked in fat and the crunchier, the better). Added plus: they will make you hungry for more and more fatsand sugars and help you get hungry real soon afterwords, so you actually get a double bonus there.

Image via Wikipedia
LOAD UP ON PROCESSED FOODS. What’s really fabulous about processed foods is that they are highly addictive and they taste so much better than healthy foods. They feed our loneliness and nervousness and boredom. They comfort us delectably in times of confusion and trouble. Processed foods are multi-faceted, being also there for us in times of celebration and joy. These babies are true lifelong friends when it comes to being successful at , not only staving our undesirable emotions and enhancing our desirable ones, but also and especially when it comes to fat gain, and thus weight gain if you’ve done it right. Key to loading up on processed foods: Read the ingredient label and make sure that the words “hydrogenated” or “partially hydrogenated” are definitely included in the list. Added bonuses to a high consumption of processed foods: these suckers are great for contributing to heart disease and aging. Ah, and another thing, when you’re reading that food label, make sure you don’t recognize most or all of the ingredients. That will help ensure that they’re not real foods, that they came from a lab or a factory – anywhere but from the outdoors and nature.
SKIP BREAKFAST. Don’t ask questions. Just do it. I mean it.
ABSOLUTELY MINIMIZE BODILY MOVEMENT. Treat any form of unnecessary or exerted movement as the plague. Walk the least amount possible. Take shortcuts and elevators ALWAYS. Get yourself a Handicapped Sticker for your car so that you can park right in front of wherever you have to go. So what if it’s illegal and immoral – everybody does it and if you’re not doing it, you’re a fool, man. Next: Always order food delivered directly to your door. Your best companions, mark my words, are your bed and your couch. An expensive recliner will also do in a pinch. Spend a lot of time in both your bed and on your couch/ recliner whenever humanly possible, preferably watching gossip TV and obsessing with the news. Soap operas are fine. One note: Make sure you always have a phone and remotes handy so you never have to waste valuable fat-preserving energy getting up. Anyway, if you get up, you might miss something crucially juicy on TV and that could not only ruin your day, but also your week.
GO TO BED LATE. This is a little-known trick for getting fattier. When you go to sleep after 10:00 p.m., what you gain for yourself is restless sleep and waking up groggy. But listen, it really is worth the effort and I’ll tell you why. By going to bed late, you get to sleep in late, thus enhancing your chances of skipping breakfast (see point 3). Being a late-night owl will also help you to be less energized mentally and physically the next day and that will help you to crave foods that will make you feel good and wake you up right away (refer to points 1 and 2 above for more instructions on this point). Once you’ve begun the cycle of eating processed foods, it will help you to overeat throughout the day and have unquenchable hunger. Be sure to take advantage of this hunger by depriving yourself (i.e. dieting) until you just can’t take it anymore, and then eating whatever you can get your hands on until past the point of feeling like you’re going to throw up. Be diligent with this strategy: it will totally pay off in building up those coveted fat stores.
AVOID ANY FORM OF MUSCLE BUILDING LIKE THE PLAGUE. This goes along with number 3, but is worthy of being its very own point. DO NOT BUILD MUSCLE!, whatever you do. Muscle burns energy, and thus fat, 24 hours a day. If you’re looking to get fat, building muscle is the devil’s evil twin. Do not exert your body. Do not reach or bend for anything. Your best bet is getting others to do everything for you. If you go grocery shopping, make sure to buy things in smaller packages so they won’t be so heavy when you’re lifting them and putting them into your cart. Make sure you do not touch your grocery bags. Make sure that someone else loads the bags, puts them into your cart, pushes them out the building and loads them into your car. When you get home, again, make sure that you do not touch the bags. Ideally, have someone else unload your groceries and any other purchases. Then make sure that everything is neatly put away without your having to lift a finger.
AVOID VEGETABLES LIKE THE PLAGUE. Same goes for fruits and water (see point 11). These little produce demons help with burning body fat by helping to fill people up and get energized and also by helping digestion to run smoothly. We do not want smooth digestion if we are to get fat. Constipation is a very lovely sign of poor, sluggish digestion, so that’s what you really want to shoot for.
HAVE FRIENDS AND FAMILY AND ASSOCIATES who only like to shop and eat, especially at buffets, where there is no limit. Make sure your friends have really healthy appetites so they can keep up with you. Make sure you partake of all-you-can-eat meals at least several times each week.
DON’T EAT PROTEIN. Stay hungry all the time by eating simple carbohydrates and fats (see suggestion 1 for additional information).
DIET, DIET, DIET! This is the number one best way to get fatter and fatter. It works like a charm. It helps you to totally screw up your metabolism and entice the body to hold onto fat for fear that you are going to starve it to death. Along this line, ALWAYS skip breakfast to ensure that your hunger will be a raving lunatic later in the day (see point 3).
DO NOT – I REPEAT – DO NOT DRINK WATER! Water provides the kidneys with what they need to do their work, thus leaving the liver alone with its fat burning duties. Without enough water, the liver has to take over some of the work for the kidneys, which means the liver has to take its mind off burning fat. Stay dehydrated. Don’t worry, you can drink tons of sodas and still be dehydrated, so there’s no danger there. As a matter of fact, you are highly encouraged to drink loads of sodas, especially the dark-colored ones (so that you can get rid of calcium and help make your bones thinner. I mean, who doesn’t need a good vacation with bed rest? What better strategy than to plan for a broken hip? Just make sure you’re covered with insurance before embarking on this get-away.) …Back to water. Just don’t drink it, Ok?

Overcoming Food Ignorance

Julie — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:06:34 +0000

Last blog posted , “The Seven Handicaps of Food Addiction,” listed OVERCOMING IGNORANCE as it’s number one handicap. The description of this area became so long that I decided to designate it to a subsequent post, which is this one.

OVERCOMING FOOD IGNORANCE

I majored in Dietetics (Nutrition) and, after college — though it totally was not on the agenda — got myself accepted into NIH‘s Eating Disorders Treatment Program in Bethesda, Maryland, on the grounds that I was bonafiably BULIMIC (eat large quantities fast and then throw up — kind of like with some alcoholics, except with a different drug of choice). The combined education of college and no-escape hospitalization is the best health education I could have ever gotten for myself. The ED (eating disorder) treatment program lasted six months for anorexics and two months for bulimics. I got the “easy” stay.

Basically what we interned patients did was exchange our bodies for science. Once in, I found myself to be a part of a chain of experiments and studies.

One procedure was a spinal tap. No fun. Never EVER sit up within 24 hours of a spinal tap. (The raging headache totally is not worth it.) I imagine the scientists wanted to know how my spinal fluid was different from that of normal people’s.

My most enlightening experiment involved two meals that were served to me at different times. The first meal was a hearty, well-balanced meal. I ate it all and felt great. The second meal was comprised of simple sugars. I ate it and wanted to kill myself immediately afterwards. Now you have to realize that my hormones and the chemical compositions in my body were really awry from years of overeating and vomiting (sorry for the grossness) predominantly sweets, especially masses of cookies and daily half-gallons of ice cream. Just like with any other substance addiction, things get shifted in the body and, consequently, the mind.

So, bottom line, right then and there, I made the connection with how foods and emotions and physical states can be intricately interwoven, as well as the realization of the power that food can have over our lives. These “ah ha’s” went a long way in helping me to overcome food ignorance.

I now know, and have for many years, how to manage food to get what I want or avoid what I don’t want. I don’t fear food. I don’t hate it. It’s not my lover. OK, I still have my loves, but I know and weigh the consequences against my values and needs. I don’t beat myself up or hate myself or my body for what I just chose to eat. When I do decide to make shifts and changes, I resort to problem solving and strategizing and mental shifts versus self-condemnation. Why eat fun stuff if I can’t be satisfied with it before, during AND afterward?

SUGGESTIONS FOR GETTING A HANDLE ON FOOD AND EATING…

1. WAKE UP! Pay attention to how fast you eat, the quantities you eat, the frequency, and the “why’s”. Just observe. Don’t judge. Take mental note.

2. KNOW YOUR FOODS. Learn what different types of foods do and don’t do to the body. For example, when chicken skin is cooked on the chicken and then eaten, it goes straight to fat deposits in the body because it is made up of pure fat. Biochemically, the molecular configuration of animal fat is the same, whether we find it in a cow or a pig or a human. Once it enters our bodies, our bodies do not have to use energy to break it down and transfer it to body fat. Our bodies can just send it straight to our fat deposits, to cozy up with its new neighbors. So, visible (white) fat on meats easily goes straight to add to fat deposits in the body. So if you’re looking to reduce body fat, you may want to remove all possible fat before cooking and eating meats. Fat is good and necessary, but quantity and quality are pretty big factors.

3. UNDERSTAND FOOD LABELS. What are truly looking for when you read the ingredients on a product? Then when you read the nutritional label, what are you looking for? What are your priorities? What are your deal breakers?

4. WATCH THAT ATTITUDE! If you decide you’re going to eat something “evil” , make sure it’s exactly what you want. Make sure you’re aware of the consequences. If you still decide to eat it, eat it slowly, relish it, “make love to it”, and enjoy the hell out of it.

5. CAREFUL WITH THAT MENTALITY Have you spiraled into feeling desperate and thinking that you can’t wait for your desired results, that you have to resort to dieting and deprivation and will power to fix matters? How’s that worked for you up to now? Or maybe you choose laxatives or other pills. And when you decide to go off of them, your problems will be way worse than when you started. Or maybe you decided on surgery. That might be a good idea, but have you truly exhausted every other possibility? Truly?

6. THROW YOUR GUILT TRIPS OUT THE WINDOW. Let’s say you just indulged in #3. Forget about the guilt trips. You made a decision. You knew the consequences. You enjoyed the hell out of it. Now move on. Maybe the next time you’ll make the same decision. Maybe you won’t. Take responsiblity for your decisions by refusing to ever again beat yourself up. Hate or disdain towards ANYONE, especially ourselves, is toxic, harmful and serves no good purpose.

7. IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM YOU CAN’T GET A HANDLE ON, seek professional help. It saved my life to physically be removed from my “drugs of choice” for two months while my internal chemistry re-adjusted. It also saved my life to go on medication to balance myself out during that time. … Other types of professional help may be found in qualified dietitians and trainers who live what they teach and have had consistent success in your areas of concern; a thorough physical and dental checkup combined with appropriate treatments; mental health professionals; and investing time and energy in ongoing learning and discovery of yourself, your mind and how foods and the body work.

Regardless of anyone’s eating challenges, it pays to consistently dive in and discover solutions. Perhaps there will be a lot of falls, but life is about getting up, brushing off, re-thinking, adjusting appropriately and having at it again..and again…and again. There is a lot to be said for determination, conviction and perseverance.

The Seven Handicaps of Food Addiction: Overview (mybodymyself.wordpress.com)

The Seven Handicaps of Food Addiction

Julie — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 14:35:45 +0000

Here, Hold My Chicken While I Take a Picture of You

“I love food, but it doesn’t love me.”

Newsflash: Food can’t think. It’s either dead (as in the case of cooked foods) or it’s going to be dead real soon (as in the case of fresh produce). Yet, we often treat food as though it were a living, moving entity. We turn to it for comfort, for reassurance, to let off steam, for something to do when we don’t know what to do, to lower anxiety, to feel better, and to stop feeling pain and discomfort – at least to get relief from them for a bit.

I think that our problems with food often boil down to sever culprits:

Ignorance – We don’t understand food and how it works with the mind and body.

Feeding Our Emotions- We feel we need to soothe our emotions with food to actually survive.

Hormones and Chemistry – We have eaten poorly for so long that our physiology is haywire.

Denial - We eat blindly and deafly without regard to possible consequences or our personal responsibility for our situation and solutions.

Escapism – Always seeking out shortcuts like deprivation, dieting and quick fixes.

Helplessness - A “poor me” mentality matched with either not beginning or giving up easily.

Lack of Conviction – A deficit in vision, determination, consistency and perseverance.

I should know about these culprits. I was addicted to sugar since I was a child. I got bulimia towards the end of college and stuck with it for five years. I have been the queen of all these culprits. And it’s not fun. In so many ways, it had me postponing life. Don’t get me wrong. When food addiction is in the past, there is still much work to be done with one’s thought patterns, habits, character and maturity. In a way, ridding food addiction is a first step to truly living, albeit often a huge and highly challenging one. Once the addiction is put aside and the body and mind have been cleansed, we have not arrived at Nirvana. Yet, we have done what is necessary to proceed towards peace, true satisfaction and living optimally and diligently with focus and vigor.

In the next blog I’ll begin to expand on these handicaps by turning our attention to “Overcoming Ignorance”.

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Author Robert Polsky Releases New Book to Overcome Eating Disorders such as Emotional and Binge Eating and Food Addictions with “Why You Suck at Weight Loss” (prweb.com)
Getting Your Eating Back on Track With a Food Plan (psychologytoday.com)
Timberline Knolls Responds to Washington Post Article on Food Addiction (prweb.com)
New National Report Looks at Disparity Between Sizes of Models and Real Women; Eating Disorder Expert Looks at Links to Eating Disorders (pr.com)
The addiction of an unhealthy eater (quixoticutopia.wordpress.com)
Be Prepared! (moreaholicconfessions.wordpress.com)
New Data Confirms Processed Foods Are As Addictive As Most Drugs (clutchmagonline.com)

How I Lost Weight Accepting My Body “As Is”

Julie — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:38:28 +0000

Julie, Red Top, Dec. 2010

One day about 22 years ago, my relationship with my body changed radically. It was one of those days, one of those precious and magical moments, that changes one’s life profoundly and forever.

I had grown quite weary of diets, of trying to control my body size and food, and of being obsessed with food… and my body –

I changed my life beginning with a mere two conclusions. I first concluded that perhaps God had made my bones bigger in recent years. Then I concluded that maybe I would be that same size and have that same larger body for the rest of my life.

TWO KEY CONCLUSIONS:

1. Maybe God had made my bones bigger
2. Maybe I would be this size for life

Upon accepting my conclusions, I moved on to make three important decisions. I first decide to accept my body exactly how it was. I truly believe that that was the best, the most intelligent and the most powerful decision of my life. Secondly, I decided that day to only keep the clothes which truly fit me, with no exceptions. Thirdly, I decided to prepare and eat lean, healthy foods without any concern for the quantity I consumed. Only after eating healthfully could I then partake in sweets. (This decision had to do with the science of how foods react in the body and with the mind.)

"Clean Foods" Fridge

THREE KEY DECISIONS:

1. Accept my body exactly as it was
2. Only keep the clothes that truly fit me
3. Eat healthfully without concern for quantity, and afterwards allow myself sweets

These two conclusions and these three decisions, combined with a moderate level of physical activity took me to weighing ten pounds less within a month without any effort or strain. I didn’t plan to lose weight. I wanted to be healthier and balance my blood sugar and have energy. All I did was what I thought was best for my mind, my body and my life, and the results fell on me as if by magic. I arrived at and remained at that same weight for two decades without effort. My biggest effort was in not letting my weight drop further. (Now, there were two exceptions later on on the game where I purposely put on weight, but that’s another story.)

Accepting our bodies is crucial in order for us to let go of unnecessary control efforts and of beating up ourselves and our bodies. Perhaps it won’t be as simple as I described, but maybe it will be. Let go of the disgust and disappointment you have with your body on any level and instead concentrate on caring for and purifying your system so that your mind and your body can become more and more healthful. I believe that it’s time for each of us to accept ourselves exactly as we are before we move on, to truly embrace ourselves and let go of all that is not love.

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EXCELLENT RELATED LINK…

http://www.thebodystories.weebly.com (It’s a great video regarding a production in NYC on body image.)

Weekend 25: Drop junk food/Add food log (droponeaddone.wordpress.com)
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Write for us about … body image | The people’s panel (guardian.co.uk)
A Campaign Against Body Hatred Heads to the British Parliament (weightymatters.ca)

Capoeira — The Complete Sport

Julie — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:38:06 +0000

I recently interviewed my Capoeira instructor, Angel Chavez, in Adrenalina (Adrenaline) Gym (in Zona Miraflores, La Paz, Bolivia — in front of Mercado Yungas) after a class. The following are the results of the chat, translated from Spanish to English (see www.enmocion.wordpress.com for the original interview in Spanish)…

Instructor Angel Chavez

Julie: What is Capoeira?

Angel: Capoeira is a fight camouflaged as a dance. It’s a fight, but it’s hidden within a dance with music, rhythm and acrobatics.

Julie: How and why did you begin Capoeira?

Angel: I began in 2001. I was curious and I like acrobatics. At first I just trained in the airport field with my friends who watched Capoeira on the internet. In 2005 I traveled to Brazil and stayed there during 2005 and 2006 in Sao Paulo, training with “Gingarte of Sao Paulo”.

Angel Doing Handstand Split

Julie: What does “Gingarte” mean?

Angel: Gingarte stands for “art” mixed with the ginga, the ginga being the fundamental movement of Capoeira. “Ginga” mixed with “art” formed the name, “Gingarte”.

Julie: Are there different forms of Capoeira?

Angel: Yes, there are two types: Angola and Regional. Gingarte, a traditional form of Capoeira, incorporates both.

Julie: What is distinct about your group, Gingarte, here in La Paz?

Angel: We train using traditional Capoeira. A lot of groups focus more on Regional — or modern — Capoeira, which places a greater emphasis on acrobatics, as opposed to the true form of Capoeira.

Julie: Why do you dedicate your life to Capoeira?

Angel: It lowers my stress. I like it as a vocation. I like it as a way of life… as a profession.

Angel in a Handstand

Julie: How does Capoeira help you?

Angel: It provides me with personal benefits. It helps me a lot with physical conditioning… and as a sport.

Julie: How can Capoeira help others?

Angel: It can help their health. It works with the body and the mind.

Julie: Has Capoeira ever helped you to defend yourself?

Angel: Yes, many times.

Julie: Who can participate in Capoeira?

Angel: Basically anyone. There’s no differentiation with gender or age. Even people with physical challenges… those who are deaf… elderly people, men, women, children.

Julie: If someone decides to practice Capoeira, is it necessary that they practice acrobatics?

Angel: Capoeira can be practiced without acrobatics. Capoeira is more defense and attack than an acrobatic show or a dance.

Image via Wikipedia

Julie: How can this sport help the mind, the body, and one’s life?

Angel: With cardiovascular health and muscular strength. Mentally, it reduces timidity. It makes you think that nothing is impossible, that there are no limits. It also helps you analyze what works and what doesn’t work.

Angel with Some Capoeira Students

Julie: Is there anything you’d like to add?

Angel: Yes, that the part of Capoeira that is defense and attack should only be used in cases of emergency, such as in the case of assault, as a form of self-defense. Also, one should be careful when training with acrobatics, because there are some moves that can be dangerous.

Image via Wikipedia

Julie: How can anyone interested in Capoeira find you?

Angel: By going to www.gingarteboliviabrazil.blogspot.com There they can find training sites and schedules. I can also be reached (in Bolivia) by cell phone at (591) 77776906.

Instructor Angel Chavez is the first instructor formed by Gingarte founder (1979), Master Delicado Holien de Sa Junior, who represents the group outside of Brazil._________________________________

Capoeira: An African Martial Art From Angola to Brazil (afroetic.com)
capoeira conditioning (rufong.wordpress.com)
Video Soualiga Capoeira Backflips Photos Video J Roumou (stmaartennews.wordpress.com)
Capoeira in Hawaii (kareninhonolulu.wordpress.com)
Capoeira, more than just a sport (flipflipmeheidi.com)
Jennifer Lopez Shows Off Martial Arts Skills (huffingtonpost.com)
Capoeira (megshealthblog.wordpress.com)

Image via Wikipedia

(flipflipmeheidi.com

“I Hate My Body”

Julie — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 19:27:42 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

“I Hate My Body”. I HATE my belly… my thighs.. my butt… my breasts. What the ..? How in the world are we to go through life loathing the vehicle that makes it all work? We just do. Let me ask you something. If you hate your body, how long have you hated it? And how much do you beat it up? Do you avoid mirrors and looking at your body? Do you grab handfuls of your flesh on a regular basis as you curse yourself? Do you try to squeeze in what you consider to be your excess flesh? How long has this war been going on? And do you think maybe it’s time that it stop? I sure do. So here we are.

There exists an epidemic of disgust with one’s body and a correspondingly desperate need to mold it into being remotely acceptable… so why don’t we work on a shift? Let’s go ahead and start this year off getting a reality check on our relationship with our bodies.

Do just fat people hate their bodies? Heavens no. You see those ladies in the gym with hardly any body fat and fit enough to go out for Navy Seals? More often than not, they hate their bodies. Models? Them too. Hollywood Stars? Yep, they also have serious issues with their bodies, despite what we see on the screen and in the magazines.

But WHY do people hate their bodies? I think that reason number two is that their bodies are perceived as unacceptable for whatever reason. I think that reason number one is that when we hate our bodies, we see OURSELVES as unacceptable and we take it out on our bodies. It’s a lot easier to blame our bodies than to take a good look at our characters and our habits and our ways of being. It’s a lot easier to focus on the inadequacies of our bodies than to take concerted and consistent action in a positive direction.

We use our bodies for all kinds of destructive things: to manipulate “love” and attention; to make excuses for ourselves; to exert power; to try to disappear; to numb up; to get pleasure in the moment at the risk of the future. What we SHOULD be using our bodies for is living the best lives we can possibly imagine. What we SHOULD be using our bodies for is optimizing our energy, our vitality, our joy and our capacity for work, productivity, sharing and giving.

Our bodies are living machines, not self-flagellation devices. So here’s what I suggest to start reversing the Body-Hate Syndrome (personally coined). Get alone. Get naked in front of a mirror. Look at your body long and hard. Notice what parts you like and what feelings come from that. Then notice what you don’t like or hate and what judgments are connected with the dislike. More than likely, you’ll notice that you take out on your body how you feel about yourself intrinsically.

Thus, our bodies can be used as tools to let us know where our inner growth needs to happen, as well as where our outer selves could use work.

So you’ve been beating yourself and your body up for quite a while now. Even decades. My question to you is … How much longer? How much longer can you continue to beat yourself up because your body isn’t what you feel you need it to be?

I propose here a new concept, a new suggestion. How about if you decide to give up? That’s right. Give up. Give up your DESPERATE NEED to change your body. Give up pressuring it to be something that it is not.

OK, so you’re overweight, even obese, even “morbidly obese“. OK, so your arms jiggle when you flap them and you can grab handfuls of thigh and belly lard. So what? It’s your present reality. Accept it and you may go far.

: Image via Wikipedia

You might ask, “How in the world am I going to accept what is so gross and unacceptable?” Who says? Who says it’s gross? Where did you learn that? Do you beat up and mercilessly judge your fat friends like you do yourself? If you did, you wouldn’t have any more friends left. Yet, you believe you have a license to mercilessly pound on yourself day after day and year after year.

Enough already. Stop it. Stop taking everything out on your body. It will get you absolutely nowhere but an ongoing ticket to hell.

How can you stop your body hating and start loving your body? Here are few suggestions.

1. GET YOUR REALITY CHECK IN GEAR. It goes something like this: “The scale says I weight 250 pounds. No matter how many times I step on it, it says 250 pounds. That is my present weight. That is my present reality.” “When I measure around my belly button, this is the number that the measuring tape shows.” “This size of clothes is what truly fits me at this moment.”
2. ACCEPT “THE WORST”. Maybe you will be like this the rest of your life. Given that, what are you going to do about it? If you knew that your body would not change for the rest of your life, what would you do to optimize how you feel about yourself? How would you carry yourself? What clothes would you don? What energy level would you exude? What physical activities might you choose? (I remember clearly the day I decided to accept my body over 20 years ago. It was an amazing and powerful decision and it changed everything.) By releasing the relentless pressure to change and instead accept ourselves just as we are, we open the doors for self acceptance and previously-unimagined delights.
3. DECIDE TO OPTIMIZE YOUR HEALTH AND ENERGY. Decide that — regardless of your weight or body size or dimensions or degree of softness — you will discover ways to have loads of energy and vitality. Shift your attitude. Get yourself a plan. Get consistent. Jump back on the wagon every time you teeter off. Work that plan and adjust it as you go.

This year I invite us all to let go of all our self loathing — to just release it into thin air — and to open the doors wide to self acceptance, self encouragement, excitement, and living more fully in the now while envisioning a fantastic future. So let’s pause, say something nice to ourselves — even to our reflection in the mirror – give ourselves a big, long hug, and then go out and kick some self-lovin’ butt.

Ways to Love Yourself (socyberty.com)
My Body (kissseswords.wordpress.com)
Plus Size Clothing: 5 Tips for Painless Shopping (pasazz.net)
Does Comparing Your Body to Other Women’s Make You Feel Better? Or Worse? (bellasugar.com)
The Solidness of Being (notgrowingup.com)
What Do You Love About Your Body? (fitnessandfeta.wordpress.com
Nine Rules for Being Human (melisagillis.wordpress.com)
I ♥ MyBody – Älä vertaa itseäsi muihin (johannagr.wordpress.com)

Anxiety… Speed Eating… Is Training a Priority for You?

Julie — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 17:29:50 +0000

The following are three elements that can get in the way of our being the entirety of who we can be, regardless of our past or our life’s conditions. They fall under the categories of

THINKING, EATING, AND TRAINING…

THINKING: Anxiety. Anxiety often comes from confusion. Maybe we don’t know what we want. If we do know what we want, maybe it’s in conflict with others’ thoughts about what we should do or not do — or who we should be. Often anxiety comes from trying to please or appease others instead of truly taking care of ourselves and our direction in life. Consequently, we may turn to cigarettes, food, T.V., chatter, obsessing, compulsing and busyness to try to soothe the voices in our heads and the discomfort in our bodies. A solid first step in combatting anxiety is slowing down, even stopping, and taking some time to determine our true values and our corresponding order of priorities. Combatting anxiety means recognizing and facing things we may not want to face. It may mean getting rid of stuff, relationships, attitudes and activities that don’t work anymore, that are excessive, and that bring about harm and distrust. It may include owning up to our weaknesses and what we try to hide, even from ourselves. Regardless, combatting anxiety requires of us to summon the courage and determination to see and react to life from a new perspective.

EATING: Speed Eating. Speed eating easily contributes to anxiety. Maybe we feel guilty about what we’re eating. Maybe it doesn’t taste too good, so we shovel it down to reduce discomfort. Maybe it’s sooo delicious that we feel we need to DEVOUR it. Maybe we’ve allowed ourselves to become so hungry that we physically can’t control our speed of eating. In any case, we are all quite capable of physically slowing down our eating. In the case of food not tasting so good, find ways to make it taste good and then enjoy the heck out of it — slowly. In all the other cases, WAKE UP! Take smaller pieces and bites. Look at your food and your utensil. Pay attention. Feel the food entering your mouth, being chewed, going down your throat, and entering your stomach. Take it easy. Notice the entirety of the experience. And for the next meal? — do it all over again.

TRAINING: Making It a Priority. If we’re too busy taking care of loved ones, trying to make a living, trying to be important, trying to please others, and/or trying to be “good”, we are left with little time or energy for taking care of ourselves. A major part of taking care of ourselves is making our bodies strong, flexible and resilient. How on earth are we going to find time and energy for working out consistently if WE are our last priority, if we dedicate ourselves –to the loss of all – to coddling others and our own insecurities? If we jump every time a child or parent or lover or boss says they need us, where does that leave us? Are we not capable of setting limits and determining where we truly are needed and where others are capable of taking care of themselves? Are we so omnipotent that our needs can afford to continue to take a back seat to the world? Bottom line: If we do not put ourselves first, we can easily end up being unpleasant to be around, hurting our relationships, damaging our health, ending up frustrated, and winding up losing respect from others and respect for ourselves. Make yourself a priority. Schedule it. Follow through. Have integrity: Keep your promises to yourself also, not just to the world.

________

Finally, ask yourself, “Who am I really? What are my gifts and abilities and dreams? What do I truly want to do with my life and with my days and weeks? Who and what do I really want in my world?”

Take the time to re-evaluate where you are and where you’re headed. Look at past patterns and see what’s worked and what hasn’t. We can change and become the people we were meant to be. Start with your mind and do the work to figure out who that really is and what it would look like on a daily basis.

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